Ongoing investigations about the premise of an Afropolitan discourse and creative direction in art, architecture and design developed in several initiatives in 2024-25 and 2025-26. These projects add to and extend Afropolitan Architecture and London Afropolitan. They build upon our ongoing partnership with the Africa Centre, London, while enabling new international connections.
The first of these projects is our role in the UK/Kenya Season 2025. Through the Africa Centre, Matthew Barac and Harriet McKay were commissioned by the British Council to partner in delivering an Afropolitan strand in the UK/Kenya Season 2025 of cultural events. Two events convened conversations with a focus on architecture and design, crystalising pertinent insights about the worldliness of African innovation today: "Afropolitan Ecologies" on 29 October 2025, and "Fashioning Afropolitan Kenya" on 20 November 2025.
The second project is New York Afropolitan <link forthcoming> in collaboration with Mokena Makeka and the CPL: Civic Projects Lab at the Cooper Union, New York. This project represents the final chapter of the Afropolitan Architecture project and is conceived as an incubator for a forthcoming spin-off initiative.
Event 1: Architecture
A panel discussion that addressed the question of what an Afrocentric ecological agenda might look like, convened at the Africa Centre, London, on 29 October 2025. Speakers: Kevin Kimwelle Kevin Kimwelle Architects, and SEA: School of Explorative Architecture, Cape Town), Tara Gbolade (Director of Gbolade Design Studio, London) and Mokena Makeka (FLOW: Future Living of One World and Makeka Design Lab, New York and Cape Town) with Muyiwa Oki (outgoing RIBA President, London) and Edward Williams (Cagni Williams), chaired by Dr Adeyemi Akanda and convened by Prof. Matthew Barac.
Event 2: Design
“Fashioning Afropolitan Kenya”
This panel discussion, which served as the anchor event for the UK/Kenya Season 2025 closing celebration and British Council reception at the Africa Centre, examined how fashion in Kenya has evolved into a medium through which questions of identity, belonging, and modernity are expressed and contested. Speakers: Sunny Dolat (Nest Collective, Nairobi), Dr Christine Checinska (V&A Senior Curator of Africa and Diaspora Textiles and Fashion), Dr Wally Mbassi Elong (Independent Researcher and former Associate Lecturer, LondonMet ), chaired by Prof. Matthew Barac and convened by Dr Harriet McKay.
Image: Prof. Matthew Barac
